Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/324

 262 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12S.X. APRILS, 1922. Mercury ' is the original ' Howgrave's Stamford Mercury,' established in 1732, the ' Stamford Mercury ' of 1713 ceas- ing publication almost concurrently. ' N. & Q.,' 11 S. vii. 471-2.) 1714. Norwich Courant. (? Now ' Norwich Mercury.') Exeter Mercury. No. 1, Sept. 24. 1715. Bristol Weekly Mercury. (No. 61 dated Dec. 1, 1716.) Nottingham Mercury. Nov. 18. Salisbury Post Man. No. 1, Sept. 27. (Though bearing the date given, this cannot have been issued until the November following.) Sam Farley's Bristol Post-Man. (No. 25 dated Dec. 31.) 1716. Suffolk Mercury. (No. 43 dated Feb. 3, 1717.) 1717. Kentish Post (Canterbury), Oct. 23. (Still issued as ' Kentish Gazette.') St. Ives Post (Hunts). Established March 18, 1716/17, and continued until June 16, 1718. The reference in ' N. & Q.,' 12 S. ii. 366, gives March 18, 1716, but should have been indicated as old style.* Allnutt, * Bibliographia,' ii. 300, dates vol. ii., No. 1, Jan. 20, 1718.) 1718. Cirencester Post. (No. 1 8, dated March 1 6, 1719.) Leeds Mercury. May. (Discontinued in 1755 and resumed in 1767. Still pub- lished as a daily paper.) Plymouth Weekly Journal. No. 36, Aug. 29. St. Ives Post-Boy (Hunts). No. 2, June 23. York Mercury. Feb. 23. 1719. Derby Post-Man. No. 1, Dec. 1. Ludlow Post-Man. No. 1, Oct. 9. Manchester Weekly Journal. (No. 325 dated March 15, 1725.) St. Ives Mercury (Hunts). Vol. 1, No. 6, Nov. 16. 1720. The Postmaster (Exeter). No. 16, Nov. 11. Ipswich Journal. No. 14, Nov. 19. Newcastle Courant. (No. 213 dated July 18, 1724.) NORTHAMPTON MERCURY, No. 1, May 2. In progress. 1721. Chester Weekly Journal. (No. 174 dated Sept. 3, 1724.) Weekly Mercury (Norwich). 1722. GLOUCESTER JOURNAL. No. 1, April 9. Farley's Exeter Journal. (No. 180, Jan. 6, 1726, which, if correctthe number- ing is erratic would date the first number as in May, 1722.) has most kindly given me particulars of the copies in the Bodleian. He tells me that vol. ii., Nos. 1-21, of the St. Ives Post, published by J. Fisher, are dated from Jan. 20, 1718 [i.e. 1717/18] to June 16, 1718, the last ending with p. 236. There are also hi the Bodleian vol. i., Nos. 2-36, of the St. Ives Post: or, The Loyal Packet. No. 2 is dated June 23, 1718, and No. 36 is dated Feb. 16, 1718/19. This paper was published by Robert Raikes. No. 1 is assumed to have been printed. The list comprises 38 papers, and I think it may be fairly claimed that there are only seven (perhaps only six) which have survived. Of the seven only two (6-7) have been published continuously without change of title or being absorbed by other papers. Number 5 certainly had a break of 11 or 12 years (1755-66) in publication, and though 3 has been described as the " ancestor " of the Norwich Mercury, I have not been able to satisfy myself that there was direct continuity. My list is : 1. Worcester Post-Man. (Now ' Berrow's Wor- cester Journal.') 2. Bristol Post-Man. (Now ' Bristol Times and Mirror.') 3. Norwich Courant. (? Now ' Norwich Mer- cury.') 4. Kentish Post. (Now ' Kentish Gazette.') 6. Leeds Mercury. (Publication suspended 1755-66.) 6. Northampton Mercury. 7. GLOUCESTER JOURNAL. The earlier history of the papers founded by Robert Raikes and William Dicey is recorded in * N. & Q.,' 8 S. vi. 25-611 S. ii. 481-212 S. ii. 366, and I will not recapitulate this more than by a reference to the Northampton Mercury, which com- menced publication on May 2, 1720. I may mention that there is an excellent oil painting of William Dicey now lent to the Northampton Public Library. Nothing is known of a similar likeness of Robert Raikes. As there is much confusion as to the identity of Robert Raikes the elder by many the foundation of the Gloucester Journal is attributed to his son of the same name, who achieved greater fame in connexion with the Sunday School movement I venture to give the following particulars based on family information supplied to Burke's 'Landed Gentry' (1914 edition) and elsewhere. Robert Raikes came of a good Yorkshire family, of which three brothers, Richard, Thomas and Robert, were merchants of standing in Hull in the seventeenth century, the second named being mayor of the city on three occasions. His grandfather, Richard Raikes (d. 1671), of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, was vicar of Hessle and curate of Beeford, Yorks. His father, Timothy Raikes (d. 1722), of St. John's College, Cambridge (B.A. 1670), was vicar of Tickhill and also of Hessle, near Hull. Robert, eldest of three sons, was baptized April 22, 1690. A curious error appears to have crept into the printed
 * Since writing the above, Mr. Falconer Madan